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Stress at the Workplace and Its Impacts on Productivity: A Systematic Review from Industrial Engineering, Management, and Medical Perspective

2022, Industrial Engineering & Management Systems

In every fast-paced surrounding, stress is present in every life aspect, including at the workplace. It is a deeply personal experience, with various stressors affecting every individual differently. This study assessed the past and present workplace stress-related information and analyzed its impact on productivity. It primarily concentrates on the field's philosophical principles, while providing a collection of directions for future study as well. This study was formed in the statement of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis). The impact of stress at the workplace on the employee's productivity was observed in the cohort and cross-sectional studies from the perspective of industrial engineering, management, and medicine. Four eligible studies were qualitatively assessed from 2,642 identified literature through four databases (Cochrane, Science Direct, Scielo, and PubMed) using keywords stress, impact, productivity, industrial engineering, management, and medicine. The study was convinced that stress at the workplace contributes to worsening relationships at home, worsening relationships between superiors and subordinates as well as contracting diseases. It has a potential negative impact on productivity. Furthermore, the work environment plays a significant contribution in inducing workplace stress because of human physiologic response. Noxious stress is detrimental to the human body, especially if maintained in the long run. Therefore, stress management is imperative before it is too late.

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Ebenezer Ofosuhene

This review of the literature gives information about work stress, factors in the working environment that cause stressful situations and negative health consequences of the workplace stress. Stressors are pointed out in details that lead to stress at the workplace. Approaches to the stress are explained and most famous models of the stress are assessed critically in this review. This article highlights the work stress and its adverse effects on the physical and mental health of an employee. Finally, recommendations for future research are given and areas are highlighted where there is need of more empirical research.

Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health

Umesh Maiya

Stress is much in the news at present but it isn't a new problem. Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people ill. Research reveals that many working days are lost to stress, depression and anxiety. Work-related stress costs a huge burden to the society. Stress takes many forms as well as leading to anxiety and depression it can have a significant impact on an employee's physical health. Research links stress to heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances and alcohol and drug dependency. Individuals are more willing to admit that they are suffering from stress if they can expect to be dealt with sympathetically. In some cases good counseling may be all that is needed. This paper aims at studying the stressors that affects an individual at work, to examine the effects of stress and suitable measures which employe...

AAOHN Journal

Bonita Long

Michael Murray

Rex Journal

In today's age of automation, advanced technology & high competition, man has great dreams of a luxurious living & enjoys at the thought of experiencing it. It is a well-accepted fact that every human being is an individual with his own unique characteristics & ways of responding & behaving. These various ways of responding & behaving can be either positive or negative & these can make one's life a happy or a miserable one. These facts are true for every individual in every sphere of life. In today's fast moving world every individual strives hard to achieve their dreams & the best of luxurious living but faces stress in the process of doing so. The present study will bring to light the stress level, sources of stress & stress management strategies.

Littera Scripta

Andrea Bencsik

Erick Onsongo

Over the past few decades the stress had become a growing dilemma in organization and cause unfavorable effects on job performance. Stress is a universal element that affects employees worldwide. There are many barriers that affecting the employees in the workplace. Work stress often affects the employees in the workplace, where each employee will feel it at least once in their workplace. Work stress is a real life problem that not only affects the organization, but the employees mainly become victims of stress. stress become a familiar element in organization and nowadays the workplace become more complicated, which bring more negative impacts to the employees compared to positive impacts. Stress among workers is greater than before which also effect on the whole performance of the employees. Stress which occurred in workplace declared as harmful to physical and emotional responses that happen within a human being when the requirement of the job do not match the employees‟ capacity...

Norliyana Zakaria

The systematic review in this study is looking at the causes of stress in the workplace. The authors will identify the most leading causes of work-related stress, as well as their impacts on employees’ physical well-being, mental health and work performance. In addition, the stress factors arising from work environment or atmosphere, workplace relationships, organizational culture, career growth, role conflict, and work-life balance are highlighted. Finally, the authors discuss on several stress coping approaches, namely getting social support, attending stress coping or stress management programmes, upgrading work environment, and reforming organizational culture.

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Stress and Resilience in the Workplace

• First Online: 24 August 2023

Cite this chapter

• James Erskine 3 &
• George Georgiou 4  

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Resilience to the effects of stress is a variable that is often overlooked in studies of the effects of stress on behaviour and individuals. Indeed, our models of health provision (both physical and mental health) focus almost entirely on waiting until individuals develop issues and then seeking to treat these via pharmacotherapy and psychological interventions. This method of treating disease is costly and ineffective. Furthermore, science is beginning to unravel ways of living that evidence has shown can reduce the likelihood individuals will become sick in the future.

After describing stress resilience, the present chapter presents the results of a literature review on evidence-based factors that improve human resilience to the destabilising effects of stress. It will also examine whether there is a “dark side” of focusing on individual human resilience that benefits organisations.

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Erskine, J., Georgiou, G. (2023). Stress and Resilience in the Workplace. In: Fauquet-Alekhine, P., Erskine, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Occupational Stress. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27349-0_22

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• Indian J Med Res
• v.146(4); 2017 Oct

Workplace stress: A neglected aspect of mental health wellbeing

Pallab k. maulik.

Deputy Director and Head of Research, The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi 110 025, India ni.gro.etutitsniegroeg@kiluamp

Workplace stress is defined by the World Health Organization as ‘the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope’, and elaborated that it can be caused ‘by poor work organization (the way we design jobs and work systems, and the way we manage them), by poor work design ( e.g ., lack of control over work processes), poor management, unsatisfactory working conditions and lack of support from colleagues and supervisors’ 1 . While workplace stress, stigma and attitudes towards employees suffering from stress or mental illness have been researched and interventions developed to address them better, globally 2 , 3 , it still remains an oft-neglected aspect across different industries and countries, including India, and only a few of the learnings are actually implemented.

International laws have been in force for many decades to protect human rights of employees at workplace, and the key ones being Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 4 , Articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 5 and Article 27 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 6 . However, the execution of policies is variable and often suboptimal. Moreover, low- and middle-income countries where one has the largest population in working age groups, continue to lag behind in conducting or identifying suitable interventions, and often do not have adequate policies in place to prevent discrimination against employees with mental disorders 7 .

Workplace-related stress – a reality that needs to be addressed through evidence-based interventions

Brouwers et al 8 conducted a cross-sectional study across 35 countries including India and reported that about two-third of employees who had suffered from depression either faced discrimination at work or faced discrimination while applying for new jobs. This study also found that both anticipated and perceived discrimination was more in high-income countries compared to lower-income countries. Both perceived and anticipated discrimination are major causes for people suffering silently at the workplace and not seeking proper care. This by itself can be a major issue when seeking care for mental disorders as it adds to stigma related to help-seeking and increases treatment gap - the gap in the proportion of people who suffer from mental disorders and the proportion of them who actually receive adequate mental health care. If organizations are made aware of this, and they encourage staff to seek appropriate mental health care as per need, then it will not only lead to improved care for persons with mental disorders, but also to a situation where employees are comfortable discussing their mental health issues with appropriate staff and take actions early on, so that more severe mental disorders do not manifest.

Another risk factor is that besides depression or anxiety being an outcome of stress, physical disorders such as hypertension and diabetes can also be caused due to stress. While research has established the two-way link between stress and these physical disorders 9 , 10 , organizations need to realize this and encourage staff to maintain a good work-life balance. This by itself can be a difficult task to implement given deadlines, having a competitive edge, sustaining growth and one's personal need to earn more by doing overtime. Thus, organizations need to have guidelines about working hours based on good industrial practices and take measures to enforce these routinely.

Sexual harassment and bullying at workplace is another workplace-related stress that can happen at any organization. Both genders could be affected by these, but often women and those lower in the hierarchy are at increased risk. Organizations should be cognizant of this and take active measures to ensure that workplace is a safe and secure place for every worker. In India, there are specific legal provisions to ensure safety at workplace ( http://labour.gov.in/policies/safety-health-and-environment-work-place ), and there are specific laws to prevent sexual harassment of women ( http://indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/142013.pdf ). Strict guidelines and processes are advocated, and every organization should have identified committees to handle any such issue.

While extant research has tended to focus on alleviation of symptoms and risk factors associated with workplace-related mental disorders, less emphasis has been placed on gathering evidence on how mental disorders affect performance and absenteeism and how interventions have resulted in improvement of work performance and absenteeism 3 . Thus, more research is needed to gather evidence on the cost-effectiveness of interventions and the cost of mental disorder-related loss of productivity on the larger community. This is relevant to all countries and becomes specifically significant when each employment sector tries to become more competitive and wants to increase productivity while at the same time tries to keep their cost to a minimum. In low- and middle-income countries, there are additional needs to ( i ) conduct basic epidemiological studies to understand the prevalence of workplace-related mental disorders and specific risk factors associated with different employment sectors, ( ii ) understand what kind of systems are being put in place by different sectors to manage them, and ( iii ) to what degree are existing laws being followed and implemented, and what organizational restructuring is needed to improve the situation. Current evidence suggests that no single intervention can work in isolation and it is recommended to have a package of interventions at organization level which could be accessed by those in need 3 . Some interventions that were specifically found to be useful were enhancing employee control, promoting physical activity, cognitive behaviour therapy for stress management and problem-focused return to work programmes. On the contrary, counselling and debriefing following trauma were not effective 3 and any exposure to trauma should be followed by provision of psychological first aid and formal psychological support by trained professionals. Workplace screening for mental disorders followed by access to basic mental health services has been found to be effective, but could lead to a potential increase in anxiety levels in those who are screened as false positives, so routine screening at workplace is not recommended 3 .

Guidelines to improve workplace culture and reduce stress

The World Health Organization has outlined key factors related to stress at workplace and advocated guidelines to redeem them 11 . Some factors that cause increased stress at workplace include ‘workload (both excessive and insufficient work), lack of participation and control in the workplace, monotonous or unpleasant tasks, role ambiguity or conflict, lack of recognition at work, inequity, poor interpersonal relationships, poor working conditions, poor leadership and communication and conflicting home and work demands’ 11 . This document also outlined guidelines to improve the situation and enumerated four key steps which are not only relevant to individual organizations, but to other stakeholders also, such as trade unions, employees, government and employees 11 .

Step 1 : Analyzing the mental health issues - As a first step, it is essential to have a clear understanding of not only the prevalence/incidence and risk factors associated with workplace stress, but also a better knowledge about the cost implications to an organization in terms of lost productivity. This is an exercise that can be done at individual organizations, at specific employment sector level in specific regions or across regions. This may need gathering new data through surveys or collating data available with the human resources or anonymized health records.

Step 2 : Developing the policy - A policy can be developed once the initial knowledge gained through the first step is available. The primary objective of such a policy should be to address concerns of all stakeholders and adhere to the organizations vision and mission. This should involve multiple meetings with different stakeholders to identify key components that need to be addressed. This engagement should be a continuous process throughout the development and execution of the policy.

Step 3 : Developing strategies to implement the policy - While implementing the policies, care should be taken to identify the key strategies that need to be implemented, the processes that need to be in place to implement such strategies, targets to be achieved and timelines that need to be adhered to while implementing the strategies. Finally, any additional budgetary allocations or training required to implement the policies, need to be made available.

Step 4 : Implementing and evaluating the policy - The implementation of any strategy will need collaboration and clear buy-in from all stakeholders. For some strategies, one might need to have a small demonstration project to start off, and based on the results tweak the strategies and then scale it up to a larger forum. Before implementing a policy, information should be disseminated widely either through a formal launch meeting or individual organizations’ dissemination network. For example, major government level policies that impact large number of employees or employers could have a launch meeting, whereas policies affecting only one organization with limited staff could be disseminated through office emails. This would enable everyone to be aware of the policies. One major drawback of many policies is that they lack a formal evaluation. This should be built into the system and appropriately funded from the outset. Specific guidelines about how to monitor and evaluate the policies should be in place at the time of the launch of the policies and conducted as per agreed timelines.

Role of government

The government should play a key role in ensuring that policies are in place that address workplace stress. Not only should the government identify vulnerable populations such as women, children, persons with disability at different workplaces, but also ensure that every sector has appropriate safeguards to protect the rights of all employees including vulnerable populations. The government should also monitor how different sectors are performing with respect to workplace stress and have additional strategies in place to address issues related to sectors which have specifically higher level of physical or psychological stress such as mines, factories, health sector, among others. Legal mechanisms should be in place to enforce laws and regulate them and penalize organizations which flout existing laws. The legal system should provide avenues that can be accessed both by employers and employees alike. The aim should be that workplace is seen as a fair and non-discriminatory zone as far as stress, and mental ill-health are concerned.

Workplace stress and associated mental ill-health is a fact that every employer and employee lives with on a daily basis. However, it often is the case that neither are aware of the issues fully and nor are well informed about its ramifications. Although laws are present in most countries to ensure that the rights of persons suffering from mental disorders related to workplace stress are safeguarded, often such are not executed or regulated effectively, leading to a situation where persons with mental disorders are not able to verbalize their problems and suffer silently - a situation that ultimately leads to increasing mental health-related disability that affects productivity. In this year, when workplace stress is being identified globally as a cause for concern, all stakeholders should take additional notice of its importance and see what needs to be done to improve the situation on the ground and make workplace a safer and healthier place for all.

Acknowledgment

The author is an intermediate fellow of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

• Open access
• Published: 16 March 2023

Work-related stress, quality of life, and coping mechanism among lecturers in a Tertiary Educational Institution in Anambra State, Nigeria

• Uchechukwu Martha Chukwuemeka 1 ,
• Uchenna Prosper Okonkwo 1 ,
• Chibuike Jefferen Njoku 1 ,
• Sylvester Emeka Igwe 2 ,
• Taiwo Joseph Oyewumi 3 &
• Daniel Chimmuanya Ugwuanyi 4  

BMC Psychology volume  11 , Article number:  73 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Introduction

Work-related stress (WRS) is a highly prevalent and pervasive problem that can result in loss of productivity and deterioration of a lecturer’s health. Lecturing work requires coping with some of the stressful situations found in any workplace to have a favourable quality of work life. The study determined the influence of sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank on work-related stress, coping mechanisms, and quality of work life among lecturers at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU).

This was a cross-sectional survey involving 283 lecturers consecutively recruited from NAU after proportionate randomization of the lecturers in 101 departments. The Health and Safety Executive Work Related stress (HSE-WRS), Work-Related Quality of life (WRQL), and Brief-cope Questionnaires (BCQ) were applied to assess the participant’s work-related stress, quality of work life, and coping mechanism (CM) respectively. Data were analyzed using Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests at a 0.05 level of significance.

Sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank had statistically significant influence on 14 subsets of coping mechanism with p-values </=0.01. Years of teaching experience had a statistically significant influence on work-related stress (p = 0.00). Sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank did not influence work-related quality of life in a statistically significant way.

There was a statistically significant influence of sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank on coping strategies of lecturers. Also, a statistically significant influence of years of teaching experience on work related stress of lecturers was ascertained and revealed that male lecturers coped better with the rigorous demands of the job compared to female lecturers.

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Stress was conceived as pressure from the environment, then as strain within the person [ 1 ]. Stress is generally a situation where the demands exceed the capacity of an individual to respond and can potentially have negative physical and psychological consequences [ 2 , 3 ]. Thus, stress is more likely in some situations than others and in some individuals than others. Stress can undermine the achievement of goals, both for individuals and for organizations [ 1 ]. Stress was also defined as an adaptive response, mediated by individual differences and/or psychological processes that are a consequence of any external (environmental) action, situation, or event that places excessive psychological and/or physical demands on a person [ 4 ]. A stressor is an environmental event that significantly perturbs the entire human dynamical system away from the optimal attractor resulting in a state of lower utility [ 5 ]. Stressors are not necessarily physical changes in the environment but may involve the loss of a significant relationship, financial stress, negative neighborhood characteristics, or social threats including discrimination [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Work-related stress has been defined as harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker [ 10 ]. Work-related stress has become a major occupational risk factor in all industrialized countries, although comparatively less is known within many newly industrialized and developing countries [ 11 ]. The experience of workplace stress has been subject to a large amount of research and interest in the topic shows no sign of waning. It is now generally accepted that prolonged intense stress can hurt an individual’s mental and physical health [ 12 , 13 ], and coping mechanism to relief stress are often times adopted.

Coping mechanisms were defined as constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person [ 14 ]. Coping is dependent on personality and perceptions about life experiences and the strategies adopted can differ by individuals. However, overall, the main aim is to reduce stress, reach a balanced state of functioning [ 15 ] and quality of life. Quality of work life (QOWL) is the degree to which members of a work organization can satisfy important personal needs through their experiences in the organization [ 16 ]. Quality of work life is a systemic approach that affects all aspects of the organization and forms a series of beliefs and values [ 17 , 18 ]. The most distinct element of QOWL is its relationship to the impact not only on the employers but also on organizational efficiency and organizational decision-making processes. In general, quality of work life is an employee’s visible physical and mental vitality and the level of job satisfaction and motivation. Quality of work life is the provision by employers of a working environment that supports employees’ efficiency, productivity, morale, and motivation by identifying the preferred or non-preferred elements [ 17 , 18 ].

It has been noted that a lack of awareness and research in the area of psychosocial risks and work-related stress hampers action in developing countries [ 11 ]. The authors were concerned that the proliferation of universities (public and private universities) in Nigeria and the corresponding increase in the enrolment of students who want to have undergraduate training in various areas of interest might impact work-related stress, quality of life, and coping mechanisms of the lecturers. It is anticipated that for the lecturers to deliver their utmost best to the students they need to have reduced work-related stress, improved quality of life, and good coping strategies. We have through a literature search discovered that there is a dearth of studies on the levels of work-related stress, quality of life, and coping mechanisms and how sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank influences these variables among lecturers. This has created a knowledge gap in this area of study and has necessitated the need for the researchers to undertake the current study. The anticipation is that the outcome would highlight the need for the respective authorities to take necessary measures to improve the working environment of the lecturers to be more conducive by putting the necessary stress-reducing measures in place to mitigate work-related stress and promote work related quality of life.

Research design

A cross-sectional survey among 342 participants was the study design. Taro Yamane formula [ 19 ] was used to calculate the sample size as follows: N/1 + N(e)² = 2511/1 + 2511(0.05)² = 345; where population size (N) of the lecture is 2,511 and e is margin of error. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select respondents that participated in the study at department level and individual participants were consecutively sampled. The proportions of lectures from 101 departments (from 14 faculties) from 4 campuses of one university were calculated, each department sample contains the same sampling fraction of the population size. A total of 400 respondents were given the paper-based questionnaires, 342 returned the questionnaire, and 59 out of these were not utilized because of incomplete questionnaires; response rate was 85.5% .

Research instrument

Socio-demographic form.

A general information form used to collect participants’ age, marital status, sex, faculty, academic rank, and years of teaching experience.

Health and safety work-related stress questionnaire

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), based in the United Kingdom, proposed this 35-item indicator tool for tracking work-related stress. It relates to the six stressors listed in the management standards approach to combating WRS. Organizations are using it more frequently to keep an eye on circumstances that can cause stress. It has > 0.75 validity and reliability rating in Cronbach’s alpha [ 20 ]. Manual scoring is employed. The score for the 35 questions from the HSE WRS Questionnaire, commonly known as an indicator tool, provides feedback on one’s performance in relation to HSE standards. The Likert scale has five levels for each item. Scores for each item range from 1 (poor) to 5 (desirable). Calculating the average and total scores for each participant was done in order to score each participant.

The coping mechanism questionnaire (brief cope)

A 28-item self-report questionnaire called the Coping mechanism questionnaire (Brief-COPE) was created to assess the effectiveness of coping strategies for stressful life events. The 60-item COPE scale, which was theoretically constructed based on several models of coping, was reduced to the Brief-Cope and was initially validated on a community sample of 168 hurricane victims [ 21 ]. A wide definition of “coping” is an effort to lessen the suffering from unpleasant life experiences. On a scale from 1 (I haven’t been doing this at all) to 4 (I have been doing this a lot), participants rate the frequency of usage of 28 coping behaviors and ideas (two items for each subscale). The coping strategy subscales include self-distraction, denial, substance abuse, behavioral disengagement, emotional support, venting, humor, acceptance, self-blame, religion, active coping, the use of instrumental support, positive reframing, and planning. The 14 subscales’ internal reliability values range from 0.57 to 0.90. The total scores on each subscale vary from two (the lowest) to eight (maximum); Summing the proper elements for each subscale results in better scores. No items are scored in reverse. There is simply a total score for each of the subscales; there is no overall total score [ 22 ].

Work-related quality of life questionnaire

The Work-Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale is a 23-item psychometric scale used to gauge the perceived quality of life of employees as measured through six psychosocial sub-factors and an overall score [ 23 ]; The latter is what we utilized in this study. The Likert format was scored thus: “Strongly Agree” = 5, “Agree” = 4, “Neutral” = 3, “Disagree” = 2, and “Strongly Disagree” = 1, according to the data’s coding. Higher scores thus denote greater agreement. The three negatively phrased items’ scores are inverted. After coding, higher scores indicate a greater perceived quality of working life. The overall WRQoL factor score is determined by finding the average of all 23 WRQoL items. A validation and reliability exercise conducted with the WRQoL scale in 2008 and 2009, [ 24 ] reported the overall Cronbach’s alpha for all 23 items to be an excellent 0.94.

Procedure for data collection

Ethical approval was sought and obtained from the Faculty of Health Ethical Review Committee of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi campus. An informed consent form that stated the study objectives, the data collection process, the benefit of the study, the confidentiality of their information, and their voluntary status for participating were given to the participants. Appending their signature signifies voluntary participation; this was obtained from all participants. Two research assistants, comprising final-year students of the Department of Physiotherapy, were recruited and tutored on the procedures of this research. They assisted in the distribution of the paper-based questionnaires (Health and Safety Work-related stress questionnaires, the Coping mechanism questionnaire, Work-Related Quality of life questionnaires, and general information form) with the informed consent form as the cover page to different departments, the retrieval of the questionnaires, and the collation of the completed questionnaire. An estimated period of four weeks was utilized to administer the questionnaires to the participants.

Data analysis

The data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23.0: SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Data from this study were summarized using descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentages, mean, and standard deviation. The inferential statistics of Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests were applied to analyze the difference in WRS, coping mechanisms, and WRQoL, by sex, academic rank, and years of teaching experience at an alpha level of 0.05.

A total of 283 participants were recruited for this study, consisting of 119 (42%) males. About 104 (37%) of the participants were divorced and the majority were ≥ 31 years (59.2%) of age with 45.8% having more than 10 years of teaching experience (Table  1 ). The mean score of work-related stress (WRS) and quality of work-life scores among the participants are 117.55 ± 10.53 and 3.94 ± 0.19 respectively as well as the mean score of coping mechanism subset (Self distraction, Denial, Use of emotional support, Use of instrumental support, Venting Planning Humor, Acceptance, Religion, Active coping, Substance use, Behavioral disengagement, Positive retraining, and Self blame) were shown in Table  2 .

Table  2 depicted that there was a significant difference in the coping subset (Self distraction, Active coping, Substance use, Use of emotional support, Use of instrumental support, Behavioral disengagement, Venting, Positive Difference retraining, Acceptance, Religion, and Self blame) between sex (p < 0.05). More female (Mean rank = 16.60) uses acceptance as a coping mechanism and more males use substance abuse (Mean rank = 169.79) as means of coping with stress. All coping mechanism subsets were statistically significant for differences in years of teaching experience and academic rank (P < 0.05) as shown in Tables  3 and 4 .

The main purpose of this study was to determine work-related stress, coping strategies, and work-related quality of life among lecturers in a tertiary educational institution in Nigeria and how sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank of lecturers affects the aforementioned variables. The findings were discussed thus:

Difference between male and female coping mechanisms, work-related stress, and quality of work life

The difference between male and female participants’ coping strategies was found to be statistically significant. The current study found that male lecturers were more tolerant of the working demands in contrast to their female counterparts. This could be subject to the dual role occupied by the female lecturers who combine their lecturing job and their role as mothers. This study revealed that the sex of lecturers affected their ability to adjust and adapt to their work demands. This finding was supported by the report of a previous study that male lecturers used less social coping than females and there is a significant difference in the coping to stress between male and female lecturers [ 25 ]. Also, our finding is in alignment with work done by Graves et al. [ 26 ] and Kalu et al. [ 27 ] that agreed on a difference in coping strategies between males and females in the workplace. Although some other works [ 28 , 29 ] are in disagreement with this finding, we buttress this result on the basis that females are more emotion-focused than males. This can be seen with more females having acceptance as a coping mechanism and males using substance abuse. Although both males and females use all forms of coping strategy, the males seem to apply problem-focused and maladaptive coping strategies; while females use more emotion-focused and adaptive strategies.

There was no statistically significant difference between male and female participants’ work-related stress. This suggests that sex will not affect work-related stress scores meaning that all participants would experience the same work-related stress scores based on sex. Explicitly, being a male or a female doesn’t contribute to the level of work-related stress felt by the lecturers. However, a study stated that there was a weak relationship between work-related stress and gender [ 30 ]. Our finding agrees with two other studies which assert that sex does not have an influence on the stress level of an individual [ 28 , 31 ], and other studies attributed their outcome to the fact that both the male and female lecturers experience the same kind of organizational pressure [ 32 , 33 ]. Although the mean difference in sex is insignificant, females had a higher mean rank than their male counterparts. This result suggests that females are more prone to emotional instability than males. Calvarese [ 34 ] opined that more females encountered greater degrees of sorrow, disappointment, and nervousness when reacting to stress in comparison to their male counterparts. Our finding could also be due to the fact that more females participated in this study.

There was no statistically significant difference between male and female participants’ quality of work life. This implies that sex does not have any effect on the work-related quality of life of lecturers. This is contrary to the previous finding which stated that the quality of life of female teachers is worse than that of male teachers [ 35 ] and another study where they found a significant difference in the quality of life of their male and female subjects [ 36 ]. A study concluded that the risk assessment of the quality of working life should take into due account the individual peculiarities of workers, with an apt focus on sex [ 37 ]. We believe that this might depend on the environment of study, and the condition of service which could vary from one educational institution to the other. Where the environment of work and the condition of service are favorable to either the male or female lecturers, the quality of life could tilt.

Difference in coping mechanisms, work-related stress, and quality of work life based on years of teaching experience

There was a statistically significant difference in coping mechanisms and years of teaching experience among the respondents. This implies that the lecturers’ years of practice do affect their coping experience. We tend to agree with this finding because we believe that the ability of an individual to adopt a favorable coping strategy might rely on experiences gathered over the years, thus aiding in acquainting one on what to expect on the job and reducing elements of unforeseen, which contributes to stress and coping. This is in agreement with a previous finding that lecturers who have practiced for 15 years and above have adopted adequate coping strategies over the years to deal with stress [ 25 ]. Lecturers who are more advanced in age tend to develop means of coping with the realities of the job in contrast to younger lecturers, and with increased years of practice grow the ability to cope with the presenting workload, job satisfaction, financial remunerations, and family issues [ 25 ]. We also speculate that because the promotion of lecturers in Nigeria’s educational system draws a greater percentage of points from the literary output, like the publication of research in scientific journals, younger lecturers are also laden with the issue of article publications to earn promotion, hence whittling their coping capacity.

The difference in work-related stress by years of teaching experience was found to be statistically significant. This posits that working experience has an effect on work-related stress. Those who have long working experience may feel more stress than those with lesser working experience and vice versa. The young lecturers who have not spent so many years in service might feel less work-related stress if the environmental factors that contribute to stress were controlled. Interestingly, this agrees with the finding of previous studies that reported differences in the stress outcome of lecturers who have spent long years and those who have spent lesser years [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Also, the finding of another study reported that the level of stress among experienced and inexperienced lecturers was significant because the stress was less experienced by those who have practiced for a longer time as they have adopted adequate coping strategies over the years to deal with the stress [ 25 ]. Therefore, it may be assumed that older people because of their work experience may have gotten more experience and a better strategy to cope with the intricacies of doing their daily routine.

The difference in the quality of work life by years of teaching experience was found not to be statistically significant. The implication is that the number of years spent lecturing does not influence the quality of life of the lecturers. This is in agreement with two previous studies that found no statistically significant effect of experience on QoWL [ 43 , 44 ]. This could be a result of poor job satisfaction, an unmanageable student population, the poor interpersonal relationship among staff, and a lack of instructional resources. We speculate that the welfare package available to the lecturers can contribute significantly to their subsisting quality of life. If the welfare package is poor, it might impact the capacity of the respondents to have access to the good things in life that would contribute to their having an improved quality of life. This entails that being long in service is not a guarantee that lecturers have a good quality of life. However, previous studies have revealed that younger academics experienced more stress than their older counterparts [ 41 , 42 ]. The reason for this may be due to the fact that quality of life is multifaceted and the year a person spent on a job may not necessarily translate to a better quality of work life and that other factors may be at play which was not the focus of this present study. Although the lecturers who have stayed longer on the job may have adopted adequate coping strategies to deal with stress and may also think that they are at the pinnacle of their career and so do not stress themselves beyond their limits, thus contributing to their quality of work life, this too did not affect our finding.

Difference in coping mechanisms, work-related stress, and quality of work life based on academic rank

The difference in coping strategies by academic ranks was found to be statistically significant. This can be expected as increased years of practice come with high ranks. The high-ranking lecturers such as professors and senior lecturers may have understood the rigors of academics and so have a higher coping mechanism than the lower-ranking lecturers. We speculate that this finding may be true because the young lecturers who have not spent so many years in service might have a less coping strategy as their workloads are less. This disagrees with the finding of the previous study that reported no difference in the coping strategy of lecturers who have spent long years and those who have spent lesser years [ 42 ].

The difference among academic ranks’ work-related stress was found to not be statistically significant. This finding contrasted with a previous study that posits academic rank as a factor that may have an influence on work-related stress [ 42 , 45 ]. The findings of other previous research showed that workers at lower organizational levels reported feeling more alienated than those working at higher levels, and they also reported experiencing less job satisfaction and more occupational stress [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. A study found that handling crisis situations look more stressful for employees at higher organizational levels, when compared to workers at lower levels. Another finding was that employee who perceived they received poor remuneration and progression lag in their career is more stressed than employees who perceived that they got adequate salaries and careers. Although we did not find a statistically significant difference, our result still buttressed the importance of organizational rank as the main influence on the occupational stress experienced by men and women in different works of life and underpins the relevance of assessing the effects of organizational ranks on specific sources of work-related stress.

The difference among academic ranks’ quality of work life was found to not be statistically significant. This contrasted with the finding of a previous study that found that teachers’ QoWL was significantly different based on their designation on all dimensions except for Job satisfaction and job security. However, it agrees with our finding that professors have a high mean rank [ 43 ]. This result is also consistent with the findings in the literature revealing a significant relationship between the quality of work life and career/promotion [ 49 ]. Another study agrees with the finding of this present research asserting that there is no statistically significant effect academic rank has on QoWL and the researcher believes that the employees have similar awareness of QoWL, regardless of their demographic factors (gender, age, academic qualification, experience) [ 44 ].

There was a statistically significant influence of sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank on coping strategies of lecturers. Also, a statistically significant influence of years of teaching experience on work related stress of lecturers was ascertained and revealed that male lecturers coped better with the rigorous demands of the job in contrast to female lecturers.

Limitation of study

The cross-sectional research design has several limitations coupled with a non-probability sampling strategy (Consecutive sampling) which prevents generalizability, although a proportionate stratified randomized sampling was used to select the proportion of lecturers from 101 departments. Also, the fact that the study was conducted only in one university affected the sample size. Also, the researchers were not in the position to verify the authenticity of the information provided by the respondents since the study was questionnaire-based hence; the outcome of the study should be interpreted with caution.

Contribution to knowledge

We are of the opinion that the differences between the current study and previous studies with regards to how lecturers cope with their stressors might be informed by varying demographic background and incentives from the employers. The study revealed that lecturers were exposed to many stressors which could affect their work performance. The outcome highlighted different coping strategies adopted by the lecturers, especially the older ones to mitigate the effect of work-related stress. It seems that one of the strategies adopted by the senior and older lecturers as coping strategies was transferring some statutory academic responsibilities to the younger ones. This we speculate would burden the junior lecturers by increasing their level of work-related stress. Their coping strategies are influenced by sex, years of teaching experience, and academic rank. Contrary to the findings of some previous studies, the sex of the respondents did not determine the quality of work life and work related stress of the lecturers. The stressors may be mitigated if other factors determining the quality of work life of the lecturers can be correctly determined and handled satisfactorily. The lecturers should be thought coping strategies, especially the females to counter the effect of work-related stress so that they can give their best in tutoring the students and their overall well-being. Factors determining the coping mechanism among lecturers in NAU should be extensively studied to enable the environment to be conducive for lecturers to operate without hindrance. A randomized controlled trial involving lecturers in multi centers in Nigeria should be conducted in future studies to compare the current outcome.

Data Availability

The data is with the corresponding author and will be made available on a reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Nnamdi Azikiwe University

Health and Safety Work-related Stress

Work-related Quality of Life

Quality of Work Life

Brief-cope Questionnaire

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

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Department of Medical Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

Uchechukwu Martha Chukwuemeka, Uchenna Prosper Okonkwo & Chibuike Jefferen Njoku

Department of Medical Rehabilitation, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

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Department of Radiography and Radiological Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

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UMC, UPO, and CJN wrote the main manuscript text, and ESI, TJO, and DCU prepared Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Chukwuemeka, U.M., Okonkwo, U.P., Njoku, C.J. et al. Work-related stress, quality of life, and coping mechanism among lecturers in a Tertiary Educational Institution in Anambra State, Nigeria. BMC Psychol 11 , 73 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01114-5

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3. problems students are facing at public k-12 schools.

We asked teachers about how students are doing at their school. Overall, many teachers hold negative views about students’ academic performance and behavior.

• 48% say the academic performance of most students at their school is fair or poor; a third say it’s good and only 17% say it’s excellent or very good.
• 49% say students’ behavior at their school is fair or poor; 35% say it’s good and 13% rate it as excellent or very good.

Teachers in elementary, middle and high schools give similar answers when asked about students’ academic performance. But when it comes to students’ behavior, elementary and middle school teachers are more likely than high school teachers to say it’s fair or poor (51% and 54%, respectively, vs. 43%).

Teachers from high-poverty schools are more likely than those in medium- and low-poverty schools to say the academic performance and behavior of most students at their school are fair or poor.

The differences between high- and low-poverty schools are particularly striking. Most teachers from high-poverty schools say the academic performance (73%) and behavior (64%) of most students at their school are fair or poor. Much smaller shares of teachers from low-poverty schools say the same (27% for academic performance and 37% for behavior).

In turn, teachers from low-poverty schools are far more likely than those from high-poverty schools to say the academic performance and behavior of most students at their school are excellent or very good.

Lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Among those who have been teaching for at least a year, about eight-in-ten teachers say the lasting impact of the pandemic on students’ behavior, academic performance and emotional well-being has been very or somewhat negative. This includes about a third or more saying that the lasting impact has been very negative in each area.

Shares ranging from 11% to 15% of teachers say the pandemic has had no lasting impact on these aspects of students’ lives, or that the impact has been neither positive nor negative. Only about 5% say that the pandemic has had a positive lasting impact on these things.

A smaller majority of teachers (55%) say the pandemic has had a negative impact on the way parents interact with teachers, with 18% saying its lasting impact has been very negative.

These results are mostly consistent across teachers of different grade levels and school poverty levels.

Major problems at school

When we asked teachers about a range of problems that may affect students who attend their school, the following issues top the list:

• Poverty (53% say this is a major problem at their school)
• Chronic absenteeism – that is, students missing a substantial number of school days (49%)
• Anxiety and depression (48%)

One-in-five say bullying is a major problem among students at their school. Smaller shares of teachers point to drug use (14%), school fights (12%), alcohol use (4%) and gangs (3%).

Differences by school level

Similar shares of teachers across grade levels say poverty is a major problem at their school, but other problems are more common in middle or high schools:

• 61% of high school teachers say chronic absenteeism is a major problem at their school, compared with 43% of elementary school teachers and 46% of middle school teachers.
• 69% of high school teachers and 57% of middle school teachers say anxiety and depression are a major problem, compared with 29% of elementary school teachers.
• 34% of middle school teachers say bullying is a major problem, compared with 13% of elementary school teachers and 21% of high school teachers.

Not surprisingly, drug use, school fights, alcohol use and gangs are more likely to be viewed as major problems by secondary school teachers than by those teaching in elementary schools.

Differences by poverty level

Teachers’ views on problems students face at their school also vary by school poverty level.

Majorities of teachers in high- and medium-poverty schools say chronic absenteeism is a major problem where they teach (66% and 58%, respectively). A much smaller share of teachers in low-poverty schools say this (34%).

Bullying, school fights and gangs are viewed as major problems by larger shares of teachers in high-poverty schools than in medium- and low-poverty schools.

When it comes to anxiety and depression, a slightly larger share of teachers in low-poverty schools (51%) than in high-poverty schools (44%) say these are a major problem among students where they teach.  

Discipline practices

About two-thirds of teachers (66%) say that the current discipline practices at their school are very or somewhat mild – including 27% who say they’re very mild. Only 2% say the discipline practices at their school are very or somewhat harsh, while 31% say they are neither harsh nor mild.

We also asked teachers about the amount of influence different groups have when it comes to determining discipline practices at their school.

• 67% say teachers themselves don’t have enough influence. Very few (2%) say teachers have too much influence, and 29% say their influence is about right.

• 31% of teachers say school administrators don’t have enough influence, 22% say they have too much, and 45% say their influence is about right.
• On balance, teachers are more likely to say parents, their state government and the local school board have too much influence rather than not enough influence in determining discipline practices at their school. Still, substantial shares say these groups have about the right amount of influence.

Teachers from low- and medium-poverty schools (46% each) are more likely than those in high-poverty schools (36%) to say parents have too much influence over discipline practices.

In turn, teachers from high-poverty schools (34%) are more likely than those from low- and medium-poverty schools (17% and 18%, respectively) to say that parents don’t have enough influence.

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Table of contents, ‘back to school’ means anytime from late july to after labor day, depending on where in the u.s. you live, among many u.s. children, reading for fun has become less common, federal data shows, most european students learn english in school, for u.s. teens today, summer means more schooling and less leisure time than in the past, about one-in-six u.s. teachers work second jobs – and not just in the summer, most popular.

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